Deception Point Page 14

Delta-One, he said, intercommunicate into the transmitter.The two talking to were instantly identified by the voice experience softw are inside the device. Each word was then assigned a reference weigh, which was encrypted and sent via sa single outite to the caller. On the callers end, at a correspondent device, the numbers were decrypted, trans easyd prat into words use a predetermined, self-randomizing dictionary. Then the words were spoken aloud by a synthetic voice. Total delay, eighty milliseconds.Controller, here, said the person overseeing the operation. The robotic tone of the CrypTalk was eerie-inorganic and androgynous. What is your op status?Everything proceeding as planned, Delta-One replied.Excellent. I take a shit an update on the time frame. The information goes public this night at eight P.M. Eastern.Delta-One checked his chronograph. Only eight more hours. His note here would be finished soon. That was encouraging.There is another development, the controll er said. A new player has entered the arena.What new player?Delta-One listened. An interesting gamble. Someone erupt there was playing for keeps. Do you think she can be believe?She ask to be watched very closely.And if there is trouble?There was no hesitation on the line. Your orders stand.16Rachel sexton had been flying due northeastern for over an hour. Other than a fleeting glimpse of Newfoundland, she had seen nothing scarcely urine beneath the F-14 for the entire journey.Why did it produce to be water? she thought, grimacing. Rachel had plunged through the ice on a frozen pond spell ice-skating when she was seven. Trapped beneath the surface, she was certain she would die. It had been her mothers powerful grasp that finally yanked Rachels marshy body to safety. Ever since that harrowing or rush, Rachel had battled a persistent case of hydrophobia-a intelligible wariness of open water, especially cold water. Today, with nothing however the northeasterly Atlantic as far as Rachel could see, her old fears had come weirdie back.Not until the pilot checked his bearings with Thule airbase in northern Greenland did Rachel finish how far they had traveled. Im above the Arctic Circle? The revelation intensified her uneasiness. Where are they taking me? What has NASA found? Soon the blue-gray expanse below her became speckled with thousands of austere albumin dots.Icebergs.Rachel had seen icebergs only once before in her life, six years ago when her mother persuaded Rachel to join her on an Alaskan mother-daughter sail. Rachel had suggested a number of alternative land-based vacations, further her mother was insistent. Rachel, honey, her mother had said, two thirds of this planet is cover with water, and sooner or later, youve got to learn to deal with it. Mrs. Sexton was a lively New Englander intent on raising a strong daughter.The cruise had been the last trip Rachel and her mother ever took.Katherine Wentworth Sexton. Rachel felt a upstage pang of loneliness. Like the howling wind outside the plane, the memories came tearing back, twist at her the bearing they always did. Their final conver sit downion had been by phone. saving grace morning.Im so sorry, Mom, Rachel said, phoning home from a snowbound OHare airport. I know our family has neer spent Thanksgiving Day apart. It looks give care today will be our origin.Rachels mom sounded crushed. I was so looking forward to seeing you.Me too, Mom. conjecture of me eating airport food while you and Dad feast on turkey.There was a pause on the line. Rachel, I wasnt going to tell you until you got here, but your father says he has too much work to trade name it home this year. Hell be staying at his D.C. suite for the long weekend.What Rachels surprise gave way immediately to anger. But, its Thanksgiving. The Senate isnt in session Hes less than two hours away. He should be with youI know. He says hes exhausted-far too tired to trend. Hes decided he needs to spend this weekend curled up with his backlog of work.Work? Rachel was skeptical. A more likely guess was that Senator Sexton would be curled up with another woman. His infidelities, though discreet, had been going on for years. Mrs. Sexton was no fool, but her husbands affairs were always accompanied by persuasive alibis and pained indignity at the mere suggestion he could be unfaithful. Finally, Mrs. Sexton saw no alternative but to bury her pain by turning a blind eye. Although Rachel had urged her mother to consider divorce, Katherine Wentworth Sexton was a woman of her word. bowl death do us part, she told Rachel. Your father blessed me with you-a beautiful daughter-and for that I thank him. He will have to answer for his actions to a higher(prenominal) power someday.Now, standing in the airport, Rachels anger was simmering. But, this means youll be just for Thanksgiving She felt sick to her stomach. The senator deserting his family on Thanksgiving Day was a new low, even for him. Well, Mrs. Sexton said, her voice disappointed but decisive. I obviously cant let all this food go to waste. Ill drive it up to Aunt Anns. Shes always invited us up for Thanksgiving. Ill give her a call right now.Rachel felt only marginally less guilty. Okay. Ill be home as soon as I can. I come you, Mom.Safe flight, sweet warmth.It was 1030 that night when Rachels taxi finally pulled up the winding driveway of the Sextons luxurious estate. Rachel immediately knew something was wrong. Three police cars sat in the driveway. Several news vans too. All the house lights were on. Rachel dashed in, her heart racing.A Virginia State policeman met her at the doorway. His face was grim. He didnt have to say a word. Rachel knew. There had been an accident.Route Twenty-five was slick with frost rain, the officer said. Your mother went off the road into a wooded ravine. Im sorry. She died on impact.Rachels body went numb. Her father, having returned immediately when he got the news, was now in the living path holding a small press conference, stoically announcing to the world that his wife had passed away in a crash on her way back from Thanksgiving dinner with family.Rachel stood in the wings, sobbing through the entire event.I only wish, her father told the media, his eyes tearful, that I had been home for her this weekend. This never would have happened.You should have thought of that years ago, Rachel cried, her loathing for her father deepening with either passing instant.From that moment on, Rachel divorced herself from her father in the way Mrs. Sexton never had. The senator barely seemed to notice. He suddenly had gotten very busy using his late wifes fortunes to begin courting his partys nomination for president. The sympathy vote didnt pique either.Cruelly now, three years later, even at a infinite the senator was making Rachels life lonely. Her fathers run for the White House had put Rachels dreams of come across a man and starting a family on indefinite hold. For Rachel it had fashion far easier to take herself completely out of the social game than to deal with the endless stream of power-hungry Washingtonian suitors hoping to snag a grieving, potential first daughter while she was still in their league.Outside the F-14, the daylight had started to fade. It was late winter in the Arctic-a time of perpetual darkness. Rachel realized she was flying into a land of permanent night.As the minutes passed, the sun faded entirely, displace below the horizon. They continued north, and a brilliant three-quarter moon appeared, hanging white in the crystalline glacial air. Far below, the ocean waves shimmered, the icebergs looking like diamonds sewn into a dark sequin mesh.